[sparky]

.
Edward Snowden is spending his first month in the Sheremetievo airport transit area
he is in good cheer , but the conditions are not too good
a good lawyer is taking him through the process of a temporary asylium request
to allow him to circulate within Russia
While very pooh faced President Putin must be pissing his pants with glee
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/kremlin-says-r ... ml#Mk5U48A

[Plantagenet]

Attorney General Holder just promised Snowden that he wouldn't be executed or tortured if he returned to the US.

Thats a pretty generous offer from the AG --- I wonder if Snowden will take him up on it?

[Plantagenet]

Here's another curious note. A US government website set up by the Obama administration to lay out Obama's program for governing has just been "scrubbed" and the part where Obama promised to protect whistleblowers has just been deleted.

Perhaps its just a coincidence.

Obama's "Change.gov" website deletes section on protecting whistleblowers


The Obama administration has worked hard to reset US-Russia relations

[SeaGypsy]

There is a growing rumour going around that Snowden is an 'actor'. There is no data collection anywhere anyone has been able to find, just dribs and drabs here and there with zilch of any surprise factor to those who research the things he has supposedly 'blown whistle' on. Wikileaks, the Godzilla of whistleblowers has nothing of any significance. Something fishy thither.

[Timo]

There is a growing rumour going around that Snowden is an 'actor'. There is no data collection anywhere anyone has been able to find, just dribs and drabs here and there with zilch of any surprise factor to those who research the things he has supposedly 'blown whistle' on. Wikileaks, the Godzilla of whistleblowers has nothing of any significance. Something fishy thither.

I'm not questioing your supposition regarding the rumor that Snowden in just an actor, but that thought does make me think, to what end? In my line of thinking, anything that is digital (phone calls, e-mails, this very thread post) is easily accessible by those with the means of access. The downside to the digital age is that EVERYTHING essentially becomes a permanent record well beyond anyone's individual control. Once i hit the "submit" button down below, there is absolutely no way to delete its record from the interweb. It will exist as long as there is electricity and a computer. Also, quite frankly, Snowden didn't reveal anything to me that i hadn't already assumed was being accessed and recorded, anyway. The collective paranoia that embraced this world post 9-11 was mighty powerful. Those with the means grossly exceeded their original powers, all in the name of maintaining control. Wooops! Um.....Pardon me. I meant safety and security. What color is the threat level at today? In all brutal honesty, for the past 10 years, for most people in this country, given the choice between liberty and death, they would gladly sacrifice their liberty. My, how times have changed! Technology is the swan song for individual liberties.

Just as a thought experiment, suppose that someone in his 40s "disappeard" for 20-odd years, just vanished from the digital realm, no telephone, no cell phone, no home address, no mailing address at all, no doctor, no municipal or utility bills, nothing! That person may have gone up to Alaska to live off the land, or somewhere down in Patagonia, the the Outback, or St. George's Island, or Pitcairn, or anywhere that the government, or Google, can't access any information about that person. Suddenly, after 20 years, they return to claim their retirement benefits and Social Security. In the digital age, is it physically possible to re-establish your identity after such a lengthy hiatus from government observation? Without that digital trail of lengthy information about me, how do i prove i am who i always have been? DNA?

[SeaGypsy]

Well try this on for size: political expediency. Mid term, plenty of time to gulp before the election.
We down here in Oz have been laughing at you Americans thinking this spying wasn't happening, for years and years.

[sparky]

.
The man story , caught in a kafkaiesq word in the form of a transit airport from hell.

limbo , the fate of all voyager ,
he probably doesn't know that on the road from the airport to Moscow city ,
big red metal hedgehogs mark the ultimate advance of the Nazis
Russians are paranoia , for very good reasons
they hold Snowden at a distance , with pincers
it could be real , or it couldn't be !?
add some concern over not overdoing it and some fury at the off hand style of the relation
with any American department , especially American justice
the last one being some obscure question of the Rebbe writings
getting Obama to squirm for past sins is gravy

[Timo]

Well try this on for size: political expediency. Mid term, plenty of time to gulp before the election.
We down here in Oz have been laughing at you Americans thinking this spying wasn't happening, for years and years.

Understood, and probably well deserved, but i'd only offer that most Americans bit their tongues and pretended they didn't know what was really going on, the extent of US surveilance on literally everything digital. The big sh*tstorm over what Snowden did was really only an opportunity for libertarians to scream, at the top of their lungs (yes, even louder than before) that the guvment has gotten too big and too powerful and we've got to stop funding it completely because our sacred privacy is in danger. I'm not one of those people, although i do acknowledge an extent of the legitimacy of their argument. It all goes back to our collective fears after 9-11. Never before had the mainland US been hit to that extent by any foreign attack, terrorist, or otherwise. Most of the rest of the planet has personally experienced the pains of war at some point in thier histories. Us American simply ship our soldiers off to some other part of the world to do our fighting, off where we can't see the reality of its actual devestation. In that sense, 9-11 broke our sense of immunity from those pains. We got to see genuine bloodshed by the thousands first hand. On our soil. That was new for every one of us. Now, we're dealing with the fallout, beit the Snowden affair, islamophobia, class warfare, voter suppression, reproductive suppression.......all of these seperate issues grew more divisive from that wound of 9-11. Americans, as a nation, don't know who were are, anymore. Technologies have leapfrogged our abilities to maintain our former cultural identity. Some people are taking political advantage of that, and are attempting to re-write our national identity. So, i guess, Snowden is just an actor on a larger stage. He'll end up being remembered as just a bit-player, or a sacrificial lamb.

[radon1]

All the likelihood is that Snowden had no intention whatsoever to become who he is now, and was caught absolutely by surprise.
Look at the events. He flees away, and the information that he released becomes known to everybody virtually momentarily. Can you imagine that some obscure Snowden could create so much noise so quickly on his own. It did look like a well-organized campaign.

Most likely, what happened was that he was told by someone who had a hold over him (like some sort of blackmail over his petty secrecy violations) that he needs to flee away because he was about to become a human rights fighter and release lots of classified info to the mass media. So he ran away, apparently in a great hurry and totally unprepared. Would you do it this way, or would you rather thoroughly plan your escape in case you know that, as a result of your actions, you would become a hunt target? Perhaps, the latter, but he did none of it. In the meantime, the info bomb was released.

Interestingly, he went to Hong Kong, a banking center gaining greater prominence lately.

So why did all this happen?

Two things were going on at that time. First, Obama was going to bash the Chinese over hacking intrusions in the sensitive US computer networks, at their G20 meeting. With Snowden going in the wires, Obama’s case fizzled away. Hence, the Chinese were clear beneficiaries of the affair.

Second, the US was advancing the Free Trade zone arrangement with the EU. The US was set to greatly benefit from this arrangement, because US industries are more competitive than European due to a lighter tax burden in the US. The EU industries would suffer badly. Snowden provided the EU bureaucrats with the grounds to “express anger” and build a case against the Free Trade arrangement. So the EU, or some groups in there, were also the beneficiaries of the Snowden affair.
Also, Snowden did not say anything what was not known to virtually to anyone. The subject always greatly resonates with the public, so lots of noise was granted, but the public did not learn anything new.

As far as Russia and Putin is concerned, Snowden is a real headache and a kind of “hot potato”, which would rather be gotten rid of. Russia got involved accidently, and found itself in quite an idiotic situation in other people’s games. Snowden apparently does not have any particular interesting intelligence information, and Putin virtually confirmed this. Putin also said that Snowden, if he wants to seek Russia’s protection, should not do harm to “our American partners”, which is a very friendly way of talk in respect of the US, almost like a plea. Obviously he does not want Snowden to be a thorn in the ties, while at the same time simply giving him away is not an option either.

[sparky]

.
@ Radon1
Interesting line of thought , But given the choice between a conspiracy and a stuff up
I'll go for the stuff up on general principle
Mr Snowden doesn't strike me as very politically savvy , if quite perssonnable
he certainly didn't expect to be stuck in limbo
as for secret stuff , he had access to the NSA central servers in Hawaii with full privilege
and he hasn't released much so far

[sparky]

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Double post

[sparky]

.
Freedom of a sort at last , he got a one year temporary protection visa ,
some internet company offered him a job for a year and his dad will come to see him
Obama is hopping mad

what's wrong with Washington , cracking the whip on the guy and being surprised when he bolt

[sparky]

.
Well that's now official U.S. diplomacy
tantrum and sulking , like a date for the ball
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/08/0 ... OE20130807

[Nefarious]

The email service Snowden used is shutdown.
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/20 ... huts-down/

A message to Lavabit users recently posted on the site said the free service had ceased operations. “I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit,” Ladar Levison, Lavabit’s owner and operator, wrote.

“After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on — the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.”

Levison said his team is working to “continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.”

“This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States,” he wrote.

[Keith_McClary]

As far as Russia and Putin is concerned, Snowden is a real headache and a kind of “hot potato”, which would rather be gotten rid of.

Since Obama's snub, do you think Snowden is at less risk of being gotten rid of?

[radon1]

As far as Russia and Putin is concerned, Snowden is a real headache and a kind of “hot potato”, which would rather be gotten rid of.

Since Obama's snub, do you think Snowden is at less risk of being gotten rid of?

Snowden has been granted an asylum in Russia for a year. During this year he should be relatively safe. Obama's snub does not make Snowden's position either riskier or safer. Obama and Putin are far from being best friends, but both understand that neither has much choice in dealing with the situation.

[Timo]

Snowden is just a public distraction to the oncoming mega-mess between the US and Russia. Until (and even after) the Russian Olympics, there will be many sources and incidences of increasing tensions between Russia and most of the western world. Putin really seems hellbent on regressing back to a soviet-style era of governance. Power corrupts, and he's gotten too much of both. This penchant will be on full display until he leaves office, voluntarily, or otherwise.

[radon1]

Putin really seems hellbent on regressing back to a soviet-style era of governance.

This would be a progress in the circumstances, not regress.

[SeaGypsy]

I'm still undecided. The actor theory for Snowden follows recent developments; with the troubles in Syria- it is quite convenient for both sides to not be talking to each other right now. There is so much disinfo flying around supposedly from Snowden- real kooky conspiracy stuff- on top of the shocking revelation that the USG spies on the internet (OMG!) how Americans buy this story as it is being sold beats me.

[sparky]

.
When the last U.S. serviceman leave Afghanistan next year , flying over Russia
being on good term with Russia will cease to be a concern
the Missile shield will be rolled out as planned , stuff Russia objections,
stuff all the half promises of "flexibility and the unwritten assurances of START 2
nuclear supremacy is the goal of the U.S. government since twenty years
The rest is just a distraction